Castle, Kerinstown And Balrowan, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Tower Houses

Castle, Kerinstown And Balrowan, Co. Westmeath

Perched on a gently sloping hillside near Kerinstown and Balrowan in County Westmeath, the remnants of a medieval castle offer commanding views across the southern countryside.

What remains today is largely a grass-covered mound measuring roughly 15 metres north to south and 13 metres east to west, composed of earth and masonry rubble. The site appears on the 1913 Ordnance Survey map marked as 'Castle (in ruins)', though visitors today will find little that immediately suggests its former grandeur; no dressed stones or architectural fragments are visible on the surface.

The most substantial surviving feature is a section of mortared masonry at the southwestern corner, standing about 2.2 metres high on its exterior face. This vertical chunk of original walling, measuring 1.8 metres by 1.4 metres, represents the only in-situ structural element of the castle, though its facing stones have long since been robbed away, leaving just two foundation stones visible on the western side. The mound itself varies in height from 1.6 metres at its southern end to just 40 centimetres at the north, suggesting considerable collapse and erosion over the centuries.

An aerial photograph from 1970 revealed something particularly intriguing: the castle ruins sit within a large rectangular enclosure, likely the remains of a bawn, the fortified courtyard that typically surrounded Irish tower houses and castles. This defensive feature, catalogued separately as monument WM020-117001, would have provided an outer line of defence for the castle's inhabitants, enclosing outbuildings, livestock, and offering refuge for tenants during times of conflict. Today, this once-formidable stronghold appears from above as little more than a subcircular stony mound, a subtle reminder of the turbulent medieval past that shaped this peaceful pastoral landscape.

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